Congress dares PM to disclose BJP’s bank transactions

The Congress on Monday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make public the bank transactions of the BJP’s national and regional accounts from March to September 2016, following allegations of a spike in deposits in some bank accounts in September.

The Congress also attacked the government for allegedly leaking the demonetise move to a “selected few” and questioned how the BJP’s Kolkata unit had deposited Rs one crore on November 8, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

“In September 2016, as against August 2016, there was a spike in deposits of Rs 5,88,600 lakh crore in banks across the country,” Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters here.

“According to RBI figures, money deposited in all the banks in July 2016 was Rs 96,196 billion, whereas in September 2016, this rose to Rs 1,02,082 billion,” he added.

Surjewala said the huge increase in deposited amount “tells the tale of black money”.

“In July 2015, the money deposited in all the banks was Rs 88,301 billion. In September 2015, the money deposited in the banks was Rs 89,462 billion, which means around Rs 1 lakh crore extra money was deposited,” said Surjewala.

“But, in July 2016, Rs 96,196 billion was deposited and in September 2016, it became 1,02,082 billion, which shows that the increase in the deposits during this period was around Rs 14 lakh crore,” he added.

He also termed as a “lame duck excuse”, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley clarifying that in September the arrears of the Seventh Pay Commission was paid leading to increase in bank deposits. 

Congress said the Bharatiya Janata Party should disclose all the bank details of their national and state bank accounts from March to September 2016. 

“Everything will become clear how much money has been exchanged before the demonetisation announcement.”